GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Life of 'Amazing Grace'

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 14: MEDICAL
Grace M. Rood, Nurse, 1936-1962
Grace Margaret Rood (1897-1988)
Life of ‘Amazing Grace’

04b Nurse Grace Rood’s jeep, fording Greasy Creek. 062_life_work_gen_health_003c1

TAGS: Grace Rood, nurse, nursing, Pine Mountain Settlement School Infirmary, community nursing, folk tales, medical advice, nurse training, epidemics, hospitals, community health, health economics, children’s health, cooperative medicine,

GRACE M. ROOD 1936-1988 Stories

The following is a collection of stories remembered and recorded by Grace Rood from her many dedicated years (1936-88) working at Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky. The stories of Grace were gathered and shared with Pine Mountain following her death in 1988 by her sister, Margaret Rood McLean.

The collection, transcribed by her sister Margaret, takes place at the School and in the surrounding community and are intimate memories of places and events that Grace describes in her own language and memory. The stories are integral to the time they were written. As most of her life was in service to the School and the communities of the Pine Mountain valley and hollows, many local families will be familiar with places and names and sometimes stories. The many services and care Grace gave to her profession and her love of the people in her service area comes through in her tales, but so does her frustration with poor health poor education, and poor living conditions in some of the homes she visited. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the view of Pine Mountain Settlement School.

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GRACE MARGARET ROOD

March 27, 1897 – March 3, 1988

INTRODUCTION

My sister, Grace, had planned and lived her life carefully and richly, and for others., with God as her guide and inspiration. She wished to remain active and alert to the very end, both physically and mentally, and one of her goals was to write the story of her life.

When, at the age of almost 90 years, she entered a retirement home in North Carolina, she arrived equipped with her own disk from Massachusetts, a typewriter, tape recorder, and a number of short stories and anecdotes telling of her years at Pine Mountain., of Kentucky, and of the wonderful students and people who lived at the settlement school and in the community.

Unfortunately, A chronic illness and failing eyesight kept her from fulfilling her dream of writing the story of her life.

Not wanting her efforts to go entirely unrecognized, or her life to be forgotten by my family, and Grace’s many friends, I have gathered together some of her writings and included them in these pages with a brief biography.

I hope that each of the readers will be inspired by the memory of her Christ – like life and spirit, to do as she did, and to quote, “look up, and laugh, and love and lift.”

Margaret Rood McLean
Lincolnton, North carolina
June 1988

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AMAZING GRACE !

“Amazing Grace!” These opening words to a famous hymn can also be used as a very fitting description of the remarkable lady whose life unfolds before us on the pages of this booklet. [The stories were originally bound into an 8 1/2 x 11 binder,]

Grace Margaret Rood, born March 27, 1897, in Mount Vernon, New York, was truly an amazing person through her ninety years of loving service to others, until her death on March 3rd, 1988, in Newton, North Carolina. Her parents were Henry Fairbank Rood and Grace Millen Rood. Both sets of her grandparents, Reverend and Mrs. Samuel Mellon, and Reverend and Mrs. David Rood, had been missionaries in South Africa, which no doubt had a great impact on her philosophy of life and choice of her career as a nurse.

Following graduation from high school in Port Chester, NY. and from Oberlin College in 1919, she earned an R.N. degree at Johns Hopkins School for Nurses, in Baltimore, MD.

In 1924 she was commissioned to go to India under the Board of Missions of the Congregational Church, with five other missionaries. After a year of orientation and language study, she started her work as Superintendent of Nurses and Principal of the Training School of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. (120 beds) in Madjera, southern India. She felt a real sense of joy and accomplishment there, and considered her work to be effective since 20-25 of every 40 of her girls graduated to become Indian nurses. She stated that she, “trained these girls in nursing with the emphasis on nursing as a Christian thing. “I felt that, rather than preaching, being in daily contact with the people through nursing, would get across the message of God. The girls were so eager to learn.” She recalls that there were difficulties along the way in her profession in southern India. First of all, she was the only foreign person there, and the only white person, and everyone knew her. Because of that, she felt that she had to live a “… nearly perfect life. You can’t scold a nurse for doing something wrong. Then they say, well, she’s not acting like a Christian. The hardest thing is you have to be so darn good all the time. You are a living example of a Christian, and you have to be careful.”

Another problem, Miss Rood, experienced, was in the food service system. The patients who were Hindus in her hospital were not allowed to eat food prepared by the lower class cooks because of their religious doctrines. Their food had to be brought in, therefore, by relatives. She [Grace] stated that their religious beliefs were so strong that they would starve themselves before eating the food prepared by lower-class or non-Hindu cooks.

After five and a half years of missionary/ nursing work there, it was necessary for her to leave because she was suffering from a food-related sickness and had become ill with dysentery. She returned to the United States in 1930 at age 33.

For the following seven years, Miss Rood worked as a public health nurse in New Haven, CT. In 1937 she left the comforts of a beautiful New England home and went to the remote hills of Kentucky to live there in the coal mining country. She taught students at the Pine Mountain Settlement School. Actually, Miss Rood spent most of her time teaching girls nursing at the small hospital, which was located at the school. She tended to the nearly 250 families in the 40 square miles of Appalachia for which she was responsible. The land was so rugged that she had to go on horseback when she….

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… wasn’t able to get there by her four-wheel-drive jeep.. The people in her area said, Miss Rood could, “go anywhere a goat could go.” And, she always had her nursing bag with her. She delivered 60 or 70 babies while she was there, and really helped all the families deal with all of their problems, such as death, disease, emergency medicine, and lots of counseling, too. She was especially pleased that so many girls learned the career of nurse’s aide., a job she considered very important, and that at least 16 of them became registered nurses. She considered her mountain students the children that she never had, and she felt very close to them. She [later] corresponded with many of her former students, always interested in their careers, families, and spiritual well-being.. Probably her favorite memories [in life] were [those] of the 25 years she gave of herself in so many ways in the mountains of Kentucky.

Miss Rood, retired in 1962 and returned to the old family home in Oakham, Massachusetts, where she took care of her mother. (who died at age 98). [Grace] then remained active in the community until she was 89 years old, with loving care and concern for all those around her. She especially loved her church, where she taught Sunday school for many years, was a deaconess, worked in the outreach, and in the mission programs of the church, in the ladies aid society, the Grange, and later, the women’s fellowship group. For several years, she served the town as the county Home Health Agent, raised funds for the American Heart Association annual drive, and participated in the senior citizen’s lunches. The annual report of the town of Oakham. was dedicated to her in 1985 in recognition of her ” outstanding leadership of groups, and wonderful way of relating to and helping individuals, and of seeing the good in any situation.”

in October 1986 she moved to the Abernathy Center at the United Church of Christ’s retirement home in Newton, [NC] near her younger sister, Margaret. Here’s she had a rich and full life for a year participating in the programs and activities until poor health slowed her down. She was in the skilled nursing unit for two months, where she received the kind and loving care as she had given to others, and also had the joy of a visit from one of her dear Pine Mountain.” girls”. Who came down to help nurse her just before her death.

Following is an article written for Miss Rood’s “History Report” at the Home, [Abernathy Center] and it sums it all up —” Her life and personality, and her claim to the title of “Amazing Grace”.

[Miss] Rood is a highly respected woman, both for her character and her accomplishments in life. she received only outstanding references when making application for admission here, such as.’ You couldn’t find a more thoughtful person.; She is a great help to any one in trouble; She is easy to get along with and always very polite;’ She has spent her entire life in unselfish service.’ She likes to be as independent as possible and will strive to meet all of her own personal needs as long as she can. She has a good sense of humor, and is very unprejudiced to race or status of people, and has a very kind and thoughtful disposition.Miss Rood is very desiring of remaining mentally sharp, and she is. She enjoys playing Scrabble and other word games, has subscriptions to large print periodicals and talking books. although she enjoys her privacy, she still feels the need to be with other people. To feel fulfilled. Her desire to be of service to others is still part of her personality.

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She has a good attitude and has made many new friends here, recently being elected vice – president of residence council. she accepted the responsibility of speaking at the volunteer appreciation banquet. and helped distribute fruit baskets to all employees during National Nursing Home Week, and she carried out her responsibilities very well. She respects others, has a good realistic attitude toward life, and (being a nurse.) understands the changes going on in her life. She wears a hearing aid but is able to participate in many activities in the facility and she is a good contributor to the total life and program of the Center. She is respected by every one for her intellect., her understanding of situations, and her selflessness.”

She is survived by two brothers, Henry F. Rood of Fort Wayne, Indiana., and Chester M. Rood of Barre, Massachusetts, a sister, Margaret Rood Maclean of Lincolnton, North Carolina, and a number of nieces and nephews.

A memorial service was held at the Abernathy Center in Newton, North Carolina, conducted by her brother- in-law, Reverend Miles a McLean, and her nephew, Reverend E. Wannamaker, Hardin, Jr. and attended by their families, her new friends and the Chaplain of the Retirement Home. The following week and her beloved home church at Oakham, Massachusetts, another memorial service was held for members of her family, her many friends in that area, and also some of her Kentucky ” girls”. All the messages and music centered around her best-loved Bible verses from Philippians 4:4-10. and her favorite hymn “I Would be True.”

‘Rejoice in the Lord always…. Whatsoever things are true, honest, Just, pure, lovely, of good report. … . Think on these things… and the God of peace shall be with you.”

I would be friend of all, the foe, the friendless.;
I would be giving, and forget the gift.;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness.;
I would look up, and laugh and Love and lift.

What a fitting close to the life of a dedicated and Christian nurse named “Grace”.

* Some of this material has been condensed from an article by Tammy Wright in the Lincoln Times – News, March 1984.

GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1940
GRACE ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1962

GRACE ROOD Photograph Album 1
GRACE ROOD Photograph Album 2

GRACE M. ROOD Video Interview [pending]

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GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Life of ‘Amazing Grace’

GRACE M. ROOD 1936-1988 Stories